Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1887-09-12

J
head. A cigar sent delicate wreaths OF
smoke curling upward. a thin cane was
tWiTllng softly in bis hand. blsck.anG-
tan terrier gamb0led around hin. He
drew his handkerchief with graceful
flourish as passed, sCd the sir became
cedolent Ct delicate perfume.
He was on the sunny side Of the street,
| ogllrg the attractive young ladies SIS they
passed, conversing. No drawing TO his
companion on the great difficulty of
killing time till the night should come,
and n the theater, or the ballroom, or
the gambling-house, or in places still
more questionable, they might while
sway the otherwise heavy hours of their
| eimlesg, useless lives.
! These are but types Of class. Human
ity has nothing TO nope for from them.
| Sons OF rich men, with unlimited means
OF indulgence, they have not one fresh,
/ breezy, manly thought. How TO extract
the greatest amount Of purely sensuous
or sensual pleasure cut OF life is the only
/ problem that taxes their mental power.
They live q longer or shorter time &C
/ cording to the constitution they may have
have Inherited from their parents, and at
length drop cut Of life as rotten apple
drops from tree, their only hope Of use
/ tulness being that their desd carcass, in
its decay may receive aud nurture the
roots CT some plant OF the earth, or 20 to
! the re8urrectionist.
Nor are they, these purposeless lives,
found only among the children OF the rich.
/ There are muldtudes whose only purpose
that is useful to others is TO
obtain the means to live. They work BE-
cause they must work in order to eat.
Could they obtain the means of subslst-
ence without It, not one stroke would
/ they do. When the clock strikes twelve
or six, the uplifted hammer falls from
/ their grasp without driving the nail home,
and the approach OF night is eagerly
| hailed, that they may betske themselves
! TO cheaper range Of the same degrading
pleasures That occupy their brothers in
! broadCloth.
Thus tens of thousands live and die
and who is the better for their living
There is never holy aspiration, never s
thought CT God or man except in bias
! phemy or seltishness. There is no pur
pose in life beyond keeping body and sou
together and gratifying appetite.
The splendid possibilities and grave re
sponsihilities of the gift of life have
/ lever OCCus )ISu tuSll AuIACS 1Ol
G moment. Their lives, in es
sence, Gle the lives of beasts
If it be not an insult to the beast, who
lives up to the possibilities of his being
to compare him with them.
What would the world be to-day If al
were such? Where would be the disCOy.
cries of patient research? Where the pro
gress OF civilization? Where the vast
| benevolent agencies Of the land? These
have sprung from men with purpose
Not from the men who drift helplessly
with wind snd tide have they come, but
from men who make wind ana tide, and
even storm and tempest, tributary TO car
rYing their LIE bsrque in its determined
! direction.
Purpose is the backbone, the skeleton
Of life, which gives il form, an5 without
which it IS shspeless, quivering mass
OF Jelly. In animal nature you climb up
from the Jelly fish, which is little more
than mass Of protoplasIa, to the verta-
brste mammslia, the highest type of sni-
nal life. And so in hu
m2n nature, you climb in your
studies from the POOR pr0toplasmic
lump Ct q purposeless l!fe, which mashea
! into loathsOme nOthinguess between the
hands of destiny, TO the virile strength
| Of & life with 8 purpose which compels
! destiny and harnesses the fates to liz
chariot.
| In no land is Tue young man without
| 8 purpose more utterly without excuse
than his Here there are no arbitrsrF
limits to Nfe-p possibilities. The avenues
Of progress sTe open TO the footprints OF
the lowliest. The only limits are those
OF capacity and Will. The son Of 3 L.
! bOrer mgy measure strides with the sor
of g senator or & millionaire, and out
strip him in the race.
'ThoTe twin gaolers Of the daring heart,
Low birth and iron fortune"
are to a large extent robbed Of theil
power here.
we8lthY, but to the men who work
with purpose, DO the noblest prizes
! Of American life offer themselves. TIE
! beads of sweat OF honest labor stsnd or
! brows to-day that sre one Gay to De The
focal center Of thousands OF gazing and
admiring eyes.
And the first step in that onward ad-
vance is TO have purpose above the mere
earning Of wages in every piece Of work
which we DO. life of work is but 8
! weary LIiG II luSlt 10 III cLSMGuL VI HOUR
parp0se IL it. In every trade, even the
lowliest, there sTe elements of compar
ison. Side by side in sill shops are tbs
skilled workman and the SLOUGH, the mar
whose work is instinct with his own life
and purpose, and the man who is The
mere sisve Of Dis work.
During the war 8 grandmother sent
some knit socks to her soldier grandson
and told MIN that she had knit in hel
love and life, and prayers with every
stitch. And so, into the homlest work
we may muse 8 psrt OF ourselves, anC
make it radiant with the purpose TO ex
Gel.
Young man, young woman, have pur
pose in life; some grand central though
around which your hopes center, snd to
ward which your efforts tend! We can
not all be mighty philosophers, brilliant
orators, profound statesmen. We can
not sll be professional workers. VIZ
cannot ell be sven employers. But W.
can all have conscience and purpose
IL what we do.
II physicians, we can work, not for on
, fee, but with profound sense Of the So
, credness OF human life and health, G1d 81
e1ultsnt JOY that We sre Sblc to minlste
TO either and & purpOss to m3kS sFer'